Sanders gives back; Heck prepares for June draft

Prominent Houston businessman Don Sanders, of the Sanders Morris Harris financial investment banking company, can usually be found at one stadium or another around the state during the baseball season.

Along with Nolan Ryan’s family, the 72-year-old father of four is co-owner of the Astros’ Class AAA Round Rock Express and Class AA Corpus Christi, two franchises that have some of the best minor-league ballparks in America.

A minority owner of the Astros from 1979 to 1988, Sanders graduated from Sam Houston State in 1958 when that university had an enrollment of about 1,600. A close friend of Nolan Ryan and Astros bench coach Jackie Moore, Sanders won’t be at his Diamond Club seats tonight at Minute Maid Park.

He’ll be at Don Sanders Stadium, Sam Houston’s baseball stadium, to watch his alma mater play Texas A&M. Sanders donated $1 million last year to Sam Houston’s baseball program, and he’ll proudly show off the team tonight when he takes State Senator John Whitmire to check out the game tonight and attend a pre-game dinner with some top school folks.

“I think in the next two or three years they’re going to have one of the best baseball teams in the state,” Sanders says of Sam Houston. “Coach Mark Johnson, he’s one of the classiest people that you will ever meet. And they’re going to have an outstanding baseball team.”

It’s clear by what Sanders has helped build at Round Rock and Corpus Christi that helping baseball in this state is important for him.

“It really is,” he said. “You look at all the parks and how much fun it’s been. The thing about baseball is if you get a chance to meet Mark Johnson or a Jackie Moore, how much fun these kind of people are.”

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I spoke with Astros’ amateur scouting director Bobby Heck this morning and set up an interview for tomorrow at noon. I’ll ask him about next year’s draft, his first with the Astros and a very important one for a club in need of replenishing the farm system.

Astros GM Ed Wade has said Heck may be one of the most important signings he made this winter, and Heck is wasting little time. Last month he was in the Dominican Republic for the Astros’ first invitation-only tryout for the top young players in that island and a top pitcher from Venezuela.

Most of those players at the camp were 16 year-old kids who can’t sign until July 2, but the Astros signed one kid who was 17 and eligible.

The kid is named Jose Vargas, and he’s a catcher who was passed over last year when teams had a chance to sign him as a 16-year-old.

“He’s a strong-body kid,” Heck said via phone from Los Angeles. “Very strong, actually. He’s got a plus-plus throwing arm with plus accuracy and he’s a power bat guy. He’s got above average raw power. The attraction with him is he could really throw, hit it far and he was really strong. For his age, those things are advanced about him.”

The Astros have the 10th overall pick in this year’s draft and five over the first three rounds and seven picks on the first day of the draft, which goes five rounds.

Today Heck plans to be at Chino Hills high to watch outfielder Zach Collier, a 6-2, lefthanded prospect whom teams are looking at after the first round.

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Although Collier isn’t a guy the Astros are considering for the 10th pick overall, Heck is looking at as many top players as possible so he’ll be ready if they’re available in later rounds.

Not counting his four days in the Dominican Republic last month, Heck has almost been in a different city each day over the last month. He hesitated to say how many cities he’s been in scouting a player, but he offered to look it up if we’d like. Considering he has a ton of phone calls to make with his scouts and players to watch, I asked him if he could just guess.

“I would have to go back to log that,” he said. “It’s almost been a different city. I would say 22 (cities) because I had three or four days in the Dominican. Two days in Miami, and two in Dallas.”

Heck is a big reason the Milwaukee Brewers have stocked their franchise with top young talent, and I will bet that he will make a huge difference for the Astros.

What would you like me to ask him at noon?

Be realistic because he obviously cannot divulge his plans in this competitive environment.

Also, I cannot imagine I’ll keep him on the phone more than five or 10 minutes because he has a very important and busy job.